Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy Added to Cast for X-MEN: NEW MUTANTS

Fox Studios announced their newest X-Men film, The New Mutants, about two years ago now, with Josh Boone writing and directing with his writing partner Knate Gwaltney helping out on the script. Around a month ago we learned that the New Mutants was scheduled for release in April of next year, but no cast had been announced, but that’s all changed now. Two of the primary cast members were announced late yesterday and they were two that were rumored a year ago: Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams and The Witch and Split actress Anya Taylor-Joy.

Maisie Williams will take on the X-Men role that was seemingly written for her: Rahne Sinclair, a.k.a. Wolfsbane. The Hollywood Reporter, who ran the exclusive, describes her character as, “a girl struggling to reconcile her religious beliefs with her power to turn into a wolf.” In the comics, Ms. Sinclair is, basically, a werewolf in hyper control of her transformation process. That is, she can either become a werewolf, go full on werewolf or simply tap into her heightened lupine senses as a human.

However, the more wolf-like she becomes, the more powerful and feral she becomes. This is where her Catholic guilt comes in as she believes that she was born with some supreme, very bloody evil within her and, though she’s helped it to save the world on more than one occasion, each time she feels like she’s selling her soul and betraying her faith to do so.

Anya Taylor-Joy, much like Ms. Williams, will take on a role she was seemingly born to play — Illyana Rasputin, a.k.a. Magik, described as “…a girl who has learned sorcery and uses teleportation discs to travel.” She’s a relatively confusing character in that she has the mutant power to create teleportation discs that allow her to instantaneously transport herself and much of her team over vast distances. She’s even gone across the galaxy in some instances.

However, she can also perform limited feats of magic, raising the question — is she a sorcerer, is this a mutant ability she was born with or is it something she learned. It’s no surprise that there’s really no answer here because comic books. She learned her sorcery and unlocked her mutant power while in the Limbo dimension after being kidnapped by the demon Belasco, so it’s entirely possible that her powers are all linked in some way.

As for who will play the rest of the cast, Hollywood Reporter says that the studio is making a serious effort to find “…ethnically appropriate actors, conducting wide searches for a Native American to play Moonstar and a South American for Sunspot.”

The film will start filming in early July according to the report with Simon Kinberg and Karen Rosenfelt producing the film described as focusing on “…the angst-driven adventures of a diverse group of teens that include Native American Danielle Moonstar, Scots girl Wolfsbane, Brazilian ladies man Sunspot, a Kentuckian code-named Cannonball, and Russian teen Magik. Also in the mix will be an alien named Warlock.”

On days where you feel that nothing is going right and the world is falling apart, just remember and think to yourself — we’re getting Warlock in a major Hollywood film. We’ve already won, nerds, we’ve already won.